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Description
We trace the interaction processes of galaxies at intermediate redshift by measuring the irregularity of their ionized gas kinematics, and investigate these irregularities as a function of the environment (cluster versus field) and of morphological type (spiral versus irregular). We obtain the gas velocity fields by placing three parallel and adjacent VLT/FORS2 slits on each galaxy. To quantify irregularities in the gas kinematics, we use three indicators: the standard deviation of the kinematic position angle ({sigma}_PA_), the mean deviation of the line of sight velocity profile from the cosine form which is measured using high order Fourier terms (k_3,5_/k_1_) and the average misalignment between the kinematical and photometric major axes ({Delta}{phi}). These indicators are then examined together with some photometric and structural parameters (measured from HST and FORS2 images in the optical) such as the disk scale length, rest-frame colors, asymmetry, concentration, Gini coefficient and M20 . Our sample consists of 92 distant galaxies. 16 cluster (z~0.3 and z~0.5) and 29 field galaxies (0.10<=z<=0.91, mean z=0.44) of these have velocity fields with sufficient signal to be analyzed. To compare our sample with the local universe, we also analyze a sample from the SINGS survey.
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